A group of baseball players in Ohio have a new reason to play tough and hustle next season.

"I think with his memory, it will make us want to play harder and get even better," Michael Day said.

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Day's teammate, Patrick "Patchy" Barkey, 13, died early Sunday morning after he was hit by a car Saturday night along Summerside Road in Union Township.

"(I) never, ever thought I'd be burying a kid from my baseball team," Nick Charles said. "This is hard on all of our kids. This is hard on all the families. We're a tight-knit group."

Charles is the head coach for the Dolphins baseball team, a select team with the Southwest Ohio League.

"There was times, I'm driving around, crying in my car. It's been rough," Charles said. "Pat was a good kid. He was well-loved and I had a lot of experiences with him. I was blessed to know the kid, blessed to know the family and I'm glad that each one of these kids had the opportunity to spend time with him."

Barkey's teammates gathered Tuesday evening to share stories, and favorite memories and come up with ways to honor No. 24.

Charles wants to retire Barkey's number, hang his jersey in the dugout and eventually get a field at Tealtown Ballpark named after him.

"They called him Patchy. They called him Patches. Patman, like Pacman," Charles said. "There was quite a few nicknames, but Patchy was the one that stuck more than anything."

In honor of Patchy, the team also plans to add patches to their jerseys and keep Barkey's name on the lineup as the leadoff hitter.

"He made us all smile," Day said. "I want to remember him as the heart of the team -- basically, the person who got us all pumped up."

The next memorial for Barkey is on Saturday.

The crash that killed the teen is still under investigation. No charges have been filed and the driver's name has not been released.